AAA is participating in documenta fifteen, led by Jakarta-based collective ruangrupa. It is organised around the concept of lumbung (“rice barn”), which refers to communal buildings in rural Indonesia where the harvest is stored and distributed to the community. Collectivity and resource distribution constitute the main values and principles for the structure and working methods.
Organised as part of AAA’s programmes at documenta fifteen and co-presented with Goethe-Institut Hongkong and Gudskul, this event brings together Hong Kong–based artists May Fung and Tang Kwok Hin with Gudskul and ruangrupa to discuss artist-led models of resource sharing, with a focus on sharing spaces in Hong Kong and Indonesia. How might the shared spaces serve collective practices and learning? How might their contributions be sustainable?
May Fung speaks about her experience running the Foo Tak Building in Hong Kong, where artists and collectives with similar urgencies share spaces and resources. Tang Kwok Hin introduces 1983, a gathering space for artists and thinkers, which he transformed from his ancestral home in an 800-year-old village. farid rakun and Angga Wijaya discuss how ruangrupa started sharing living rooms in the early 2000s, and the space-sharing models that ruangrupa and Gudskul have developed in recent years.
This talk contributes to Gudskul’s collective study programme at documenta fifteen, inviting arts collectives from the Asia-Pacific region that run educational programmes and activities to their space.
The livestreamed programme will be held onsite at Fridericianum, Kassel, and is free and open to the public with registration.
The programme will also be livestreamed at Goethe-Institut Hongkong as an in-person event moderated by Wong Ka Ying. To register for in-person event, please visit Goethe-Institut's website.
May Fung is the Founder of Art & Culture Outreach (ACO), an independent bookstore in the Foo Tak Building. ACO manages other spaces in the building, renting them out to artist initiatives and cultural practitioners at a nominal rent. Before her retirement, she was Creative Education Director, Acting Principal, and Deputy School Supervisor at HKICC Lee Shau Kee School of Creativity, the first arts-only senior secondary school in Hong Kong. Fung is also an independent filmmaker and video and media artist.
Tang Kwok Hin is the founder of 1983, a space that blurs various socially established borders among people from Hong Kong and overseas. Tang is a cross-disciplinary artist. He received his Master of Fine Arts from the Chinese University of Hong Kong (2008), and developed his artistic practices from his own experiences as an indigenous inhabitant. He was awarded the first prize at Hong Kong Contemporary Art Biennial in 2009 and was also a grantee of Asian Cultural Council in 2013.
Angga Wijaya is a member of Gudskul: Collective Study and Contemporary Art Ecosystem, a public learning space formed by three art collectives in Jakarta, including ruangrupa, Serrum, and Grafis Huru Hara (GHH). Since the early 2000s, the three collectives have been active in the field of contemporary art by exercising collective and collaborative work. In 2015, these collectives agreed to form a joint ecosystem adapting values emerging from the collective process, such as equity, sharing, solidarity, friendship, and togetherness. Gudskul will present Sekolah Temujalar, the fourth and fifth edition of their annual collective study programme at documenta fifteen.
farid rakun is a member of ruangrupa, the Artistic Directors of documenta fifteen. Established in 2000, the Jakarta-based artists’ collective promotes artistic ideas within urban and cultural contexts, so as to open up critical observations and perspectives on contemporary urban problems in Indonesia. ruangrupa produces collaborative works in the form of art projects such as exhibitions, festivals, workshops, and publications.
Moderators: JJ Adibrata, Gudskul; and Susanna Chung, Programmes Manager and Head of Learning & Participation, Asia Art Archive